Work surfaces of tools, such as buckets, are prone to excessive abrasive wear. In order to minimize wear on the structure itself, replaceable wear members are sometimes coupled to the structure along areas encountering high abrasion. Such replaceable wear members may be retained by a variety of fastening methods.
For example, welding has been frequently used to attach wear members; however, welding is expensive and time consuming. Moreover, removal and replacement of the welded wear member is an equally expensive and time-consuming task. Various types of mechanical fasteners have also been used, but with varying degrees of success because of their complexity, unreliability and cost. U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,549 to Bender et al. discloses a wear member that is slidably coupled to a mounting base that is secured to the tool surface.